Are you welcoming those prospects and customers who have a disability into your business?

According to a statistic from the US Centers for Disease Control, nearly 1 in 4 people have a disability which makes it difficult to engage with or support businesses that are not friendly to those with disabilities.

This issue is true for both physical businesses where there are no ramps or elevators to get up stairs, no menus with braille print, no assistive listening devices for those with hearing disabilities, etc. as much as it is online businesses and websites.

In this episode, Jennifer, Daniel, and Patricia talk about how to start thinking more about getting those with disabilities to be coming into your business/website just like those without. And, how the search engines support the push to be more inclusive and accessible along with even possible tax credits from the US federal government for making your site accessible (please speak with a qualified tax preparer before claiming any credits to ensure you’re allowed to claim this credit)!

To learn more how you can use an AI widget to get your website more accessible, please visit https://haveanadacompliant.website.

Transcript (auto-generated; may contain errors):

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Jennifer Glass: Hello, and welcome to another episode of It’s the Bottom Line that Matters Podcast, where we are dedicated to your success.

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Jennifer Glass: For a lot of people, we know that in physical

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Jennifer Glass: spaces,

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Jennifer Glass: especially here in the United States, there is a requirement that your plans, and whatever form that is needs to be accessible to those with disabilities.

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Jennifer Glass: That means that if you’ve got steps.

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Jennifer Glass: there’s got to be an accessible access to get into your building for those in wheelchairs.

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Jennifer Glass: If you are displaying

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Jennifer Glass: video or audio, there has to be

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Jennifer Glass: translation or interpreter services available for those that need it.

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Jennifer Glass: However, do you know, there’s also something for the web

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Jennifer Glass: that necessitates you being

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Jennifer Glass: offering the same kind of tools

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Jennifer Glass: to those people that are looking at your website. And so, as I bring Daniel and Patricia. As I bring the 2 of you in.

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Jennifer Glass: let me ask you other than simply saying, let’s have the nice thing to do of connecting people

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Jennifer Glass: and saying. Hey, welcome to my site!

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Jennifer Glass: Why should we care about those with disabilities coming on to our site?

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Patricia Reszetylo: They got money, too. They deserved to.

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Patricia Reszetylo: There’s the obvious reason they deserve to access the information that we are sharing.

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Patricia Reszetylo: You know that there’s an actual statistic though that says about 25 of your visitors

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Jennifer Glass: may have some sort of disability

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Jennifer Glass: which is incredible to think about. Yeah, I mean, if 25 of your potential visitors have some sort of disability, and You’re not making your content and your website accessible to them.

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Jennifer Glass: That is giving up a lot.

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Daniel McCraine: It’s giving up a lot of potential customers, and it’s Also, if we don’t make that available, it’s also potentially creating a

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Daniel McCraine: like a second class citizen status.

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Patricia Reszetylo: Yeah.

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Daniel McCraine: of people with disabilities which obviously would not be anyone’s intention. No one would want anything like that. So it it’s important. Jennifer and I know this is where you’re going. It’s important that we do consider

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Daniel McCraine: what those disabilities mean when someone is viewing content online and an easy one to think about would be people with

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Daniel McCraine: site related disabilities. so not full on blindness, but difficulty seeing.

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Daniel McCraine: And so for a long time Internet browsers have been able to show things that larger text, and sometimes even in black and white, to help with some of those site disabilities.

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Daniel McCraine: But I know that there’s more to it. And, Jennifer, You’ve done more research than either of us on what some of those other disabilities are, and how they affect reading something on a screen.

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Daniel McCraine: So fill us in. And, Jennifer, what else? What other kind of issues are there that people encounter reading something on a screen. and I I can come in for the 2 with a a teaching background and talk a little bit about learning disabilities and how that affects screen reading. But what have you learned recently? Jennifer.

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Jennifer Glass: Absolutely and i’m gonna just steal a little bit of your thunder. Daniel in terms of dyslexia.

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Daniel McCraine: as it relates to what somebody may be looking at on the website.

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Jennifer Glass: and that is, if somebody is dyslexic.

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Jennifer Glass: We know that they have problems reading. They’ll

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Jennifer Glass: transpose words, letters, things along those lines, in terms of trying to really figure out the languaging of what’s on your page.

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Jennifer Glass: And there’s ways that you can make the characters stand out in a way that really is designed to help them.

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Jennifer Glass: There’s also those people with epilepsy

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Jennifer Glass: that if there’s animation on your page.

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Jennifer Glass: may actually cause an epileptic seizure. There’s those with cognitive disabilities that have a hard time separating out

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Jennifer Glass: all the different pieces that are on your site.

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Jennifer Glass: Somebody is Adhd. They may be looking all over it everything all at once. But if you can have a ruler, basically here’s the lines that you’re on.

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Jennifer Glass: I remember when my kids were younger I used to have to do that with them

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Jennifer Glass: as we did our reading homework.

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Jennifer Glass: because one day my daughter is reading, and she starts reading a word from another one. I’m like, Where do you see that?

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Patricia Reszetylo: Because i’m reading the text, and I don’t see what it was.

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Jennifer Glass: and it dawned on me. What if we covered over all of the other lines. and we only showed the line that she was supposed to be reading.

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Jennifer Glass: But once we did that, her reading dramatically improved.

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Jennifer Glass: and she wasn’t getting all of those other things. And there’s ways that we can do that online, too.

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Jennifer Glass: But it’s also. Though, Daniel, you were mentioning some of the information behind the scenes for those of you without getting to into the geeks speak. There’s the alt tags

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Jennifer Glass: as an example that we include with images telling what the image is about. Not only is it good for those people with disabilities.

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Jennifer Glass: But it’s also good for Google, because Google can’t really see what the image is right.

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Jennifer Glass: And when we talk Google, we mean all search engines. Not just Google.

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Jennifer Glass: but any adaptive screen reader.

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Jennifer Glass: any search engine, anything that is pulling content

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Jennifer Glass: is not able to see what an image is. But If you can tell me what it is. then all of a sudden it’s a lot different. and there’s certain requirements like. If it’s simply a line that separates the screen.

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Jennifer Glass: You don’t need to have a description because it’s design. It’s not a core element that somebody needs to know.

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Jennifer Glass: So that becomes something that we’re talking about in terms of that necessity. To know the other thing, by the way, also is when we mentioned the search engines.

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Jennifer Glass: The search engines love when you are inclusive.

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Jennifer Glass: Right? You make your site accessible to all.

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Jennifer Glass: and you’re more inclusive

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Jennifer Glass: because they don’t want to be losing people either.

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Jennifer Glass: Right? Why would they send traffic to a site that they know

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Jennifer Glass: is not going to be in a position to say yes. We like the information here. When the 25 of your audience may not be in a position to even engage or consume with that content.

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Jennifer Glass: And so there’s a lot of that value.

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Patricia Reszetylo: right? And you know Google wants to

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Patricia Reszetylo: reward better websites with higher placement. Exactly. So if you’re, you know, compliant in these ways.

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Jennifer Glass: and they’re like, yeah, okay, like, if you point up here, or however many points or algorithm, gives you at or no. And again it goes back, you know. Here’s the thing there’s something called the Wcag: the Web content accessibility guidelines.

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Jennifer Glass: And when your site is in compliance with the W requirements.

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Jennifer Glass: you’re going to be a lot better. There are things that you can do as you’re building your site for sure

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Jennifer Glass: to make your site more accessible. There’s also widgets that you can use that Are AI driven

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Jennifer Glass: that allow for you to have an AI system

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Jennifer Glass: to give a lot more of those tools to you as well. But again, a lot goes back to just simple architecture. How are you building the site? Is everything done correctly behind the scenes.

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Jennifer Glass: so that you’re going to be better without even necessarily needing that. Widget

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Daniel McCraine: Jennifer. I think it’s important that not only do we talk about the benefits and the the citizenship behind. Why, we would want to be inclusive of those with disabilities who are coming to our website. I think it’s also important that we mentioned the risk

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Daniel McCraine: about not being compliant with these guidelines that you just mentioned. and just as has been going on for a long time since, the Americans with Disabilities Act was first signed

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Daniel McCraine: where there were some people out there who made their living

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Daniel McCraine: by finding a shop finding a plant. As you were talking about earlier, Jennifer that was not compliant, and then suing that company

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Daniel McCraine: the same is beginning to happen online.

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Daniel McCraine: So there are people out there, and I don’t necessarily agree with their ethical motive. but they are making a living at finding websites that are not compliant with these guidelines

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Daniel McCraine: and bringing a lawsuit against them.

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Daniel McCraine: And and Jennifer, you threw out a statistic the other day that was just mind blowing what the average lawsuit is against those websites in those companies? And in

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Daniel McCraine: do you recall, do you recall the you found? What’s the average lawsuit

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Jennifer Glass: right? The average lawsuit is between 3 and $500,000.

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Jennifer Glass: That’s being filed with an expected settlement north of.

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Daniel McCraine: and just like there is no website out there. That would cost that much. But this is what it’s costing some businesses not to be compliant

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Patricia Reszetylo: with the guidelines.

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Daniel McCraine: No, no. So if you want to think about budgeting for your website? Would you rather budget for a potential lawsuit? Or would you rather budget to bring your website compliant with the guidelines

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Jennifer Glass: absolutely. And the other thing also, while we’re talking about that and not scary, but also there’s potential

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Jennifer Glass: tax credits that may be available

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Jennifer Glass: for the work that you do to make your site compliant

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Jennifer Glass: again. You have to talk with your tax, advisor. We’re not giving you any legal or tax advice on this show. We’re simply giving you information, and we strongly encourage you to talk with your appropriate.

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Jennifer Glass: our representatives that can give you more guidance, your advisors.

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Jennifer Glass: But when it comes down to the tax credits that are available here in the United States for those that are in a qualifying level with the Irs.

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Jennifer Glass: There’s a lot that we can potentially be looking at, though that can say, Well.

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Jennifer Glass: can we offset the cost and make this better for everyone.

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Jennifer Glass: And there’s the value from the search engines. And there’s also again, like Daniel saying, protecting yourself from

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Jennifer Glass: the

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Jennifer Glass: people who are looking just the file suits.

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Jennifer Glass: There have been many, many instances of major names

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Jennifer Glass: that have been sued

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Jennifer Glass: one of the things as an example. The Justice Department went against many drug stores

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Jennifer Glass: because their websites were not

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Jennifer Glass: easy to use for those with disabilities, especially during the Covid pandemic.

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Jennifer Glass: when we needed

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Jennifer Glass: access to getting the vaccines.

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Jennifer Glass: If somebody wasn’t able to interact or engage with the site. and that was the only way that you can make an appointment. How is that supposed to work? Yeah, I mean, I tried getting a vaccine at my pharmacy, and they said, No, you can’t talk to us in the store. You have to go online.

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Jennifer Glass: and if their website is not in a compliant manner.

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Jennifer Glass: How does that even work? I mean, do you have your caretaker to be in a position to do that? Many people that are disabled, Don’t necessarily have caretakers. and if their children are too young to know how to use the web

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Jennifer Glass: or their spouse is not available, and they don’t have someone else immediately there.

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Jennifer Glass: I mean it’s have to ask someone to go across the street to their neighbor just like they can schedule. A vaccine appointment is a little absurd. Think about that, though, for your business, too. If you’re selling

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Jennifer Glass: just as an example, a roofing company.

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Jennifer Glass: and you’re trying to talk to seniors

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Jennifer Glass: that need a new roof. Are they going to go and ask their grandkid? Help me navigate the page?

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Jennifer Glass: Are they simply going to say it’s not worth it.

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Daniel McCraine: Yeah. that definitely starts to get into some other issues. About how many ways should you be available to your target? Audience: what’s their preferred way to buy.

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Daniel McCraine: I have.

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Daniel McCraine: Yeah, and and so why not go ahead and take the same approach to designing your website, making your website accessible.

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Daniel McCraine: whether your target audience happens to be disabled or not. But go ahead and make those decisions. How can you make yourself accessible

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Daniel McCraine: to all of your target audience who

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Daniel McCraine: might want to buy from you.

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Daniel McCraine: and then includes making your website Ada compliant as well.

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Jennifer Glass: Absolutely so, as we wrap up our conversation and picture. So i’m going to turn to you. Final thoughts, please.

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Patricia Reszetylo: Well, just as

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Patricia Reszetylo: it it’s just as important these days, and maybe even more important. I don’t know for a person to be able to access your website as it is, access your

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Patricia Reszetylo: brick and mortar store. because so many of us are shopping almost exclusively on line.

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Patricia Reszetylo: And

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Patricia Reszetylo: like, she said. Like somebody said, there’s probably 25% of the population that’s disabled. I believe that I really would

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Patricia Reszetylo: some sort of handicap disability, whatever it is not necessarily that they’re in a wheelchair, but they’ve got some sort of disability. There’s there’s there’s things that if you aren’t compliant with it’s going to prevent them from getting

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Patricia Reszetylo: on your site and doing what they need to do. They deserve to have access to the information and to to your You know your products, your service, whatever

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Patricia Reszetylo: they they deserve that as much as the next person does.

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Jennifer Glass: Absolutely.

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Jennifer Glass: Daniel, Any parting words.

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Daniel McCraine: I will say that Jennifer, you mentioned this a little bit earlier about different kinds of tools and things to make websites accessible, and there are some easy solutions.

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Daniel McCraine: and i’ll just put out a nudge here.

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Daniel McCraine: so that it doesn’t feel too awkward. But I will say Jennifer has access to some very dirt cheap solutions. so I will say, reach out to Jennifer. She can get you connected. She can help you out if your website is currently not Ada compliant.

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Jennifer Glass: Thank you for the plug

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Jennifer Glass: I wasn’t, expecting that. But thank you. But it is as Daniel was saying. Really, it’s

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Jennifer Glass: inexpensive

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Jennifer Glass: to get your site compliant.

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Jennifer Glass: and to make sure that the work that you’re doing is going to be there.

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Jennifer Glass: One other thing that we didn’t cover, and that was audio and video

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Jennifer Glass: that’s on your website. Make sure that you’re also putting captions or the transcript.

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Jennifer Glass: So that way everything is clear on what it is that you’re doing, and that’s something that no matter what you’re doing, should be there.

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Jennifer Glass: Think about. Also the video that you put on social media. Sometimes people are at the office. They’re on public transportation

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Jennifer Glass: where they can’t necessarily be listening to the audio.

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Jennifer Glass: and they don’t have disabilities.

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Jennifer Glass: but they can still consume what it is that you’re saying. because you’ve got the captions of the Transcript

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Jennifer Glass: right there on your video that you’re putting out there.

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Jennifer Glass: And so, as you think about what you’re doing, make sure that you’re trying to really be as inclusive as possible.

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Jennifer Glass: and

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Jennifer Glass: that way more people are going to want to work with you.

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Jennifer Glass: or at least know you

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Jennifer Glass: on that note. This has been another episode of It’s the Bottom Line that Matters, and until next time here’s to your success.